Like the Poison in Her Heart
by Black-Winged Tease
Summary: A swallow of poison is what she does after the massacre. After torture, she's free...to become a slave. Yet again bloodshed arises, a local thief will seduce her into his own plans, and a moody whore will have hell to play. Is she going to find sanctuary?


((So hi everyone! Miki's back with another story! :3 Yes, yes, I know that I have three other stories I haven't updated yet In time it will be updated, rest assure! Though, does anyone care to read my stories anymore? O,o Anyhow, the main pairing is TykixRhode, but there are also others like AllenLena, LaviYuu, and SherillCross. XD So yuh. Please enjoy this first non-one shot TykiRhode! Comments, love, and reviews are most loved! 3 ))

Like the Poison in Her Heart

Bells jingled and colorful ribbons were cast into the wind as the old wooden cart made its way down the pebbled-encrusted meandering road that lead to its destination. Huddled in the cart were a group of bizarre, ashen, beautiful women clothed in ragged majestic clothing. Ribbons and ties cress-crossed their bodices and dresses while bells and trinkets hung upon their necks, waists, and ankles. They were exotic and mischievous. At times they were hated and under suspicion and at other times, the women were marveled at.

One woman with a mass of long coiling black hair sat in the corner of the wooden cart. Her dark eyes blazed upon the young woman in her lap, secured against her chest. The young woman had jagged cropped hair the color of sweet plums. Black make-up outlined her golden hues and created decorative crosses upon her forehead. Her long thick eyelashes were dressed in sparkles, reminding one of the midnight sky. Ashen soft skin was covered by her tattered black and red dress. Black and gold bells hung from the white sash at her waist. Ribbons of blue and purple laced up her arms, intertwined with gems. Her thin long fingers fingered the ruby tear drop hanging from a silver cord around her bony neck.

"What are you thinking about, Rhode?" The black-haired beauty asked the young woman in her arms. She squeezed her arms tightly around Rhode until the girl parted her lips, letting a squeal creep up her throat.

"Did you have to squeeze me so hard, Harli?" Rhode grumbled, letting her hand fall limp into her lap, leaving the gem to itself. Even if she wasn't playing with the jewelry anymore, she could feel it branding her skin.

"It got your attention," Harli grinned, finding the girl adorable. "So, are you ready for another act? Out of all of us, you seem to be pretty magical, you know? I mean, the men stare at you for your talent not your breasts…"

Flushing a light shade of pink upon her cheeks as the warm flooded her face, Rhode coughed, "Harli, why do you always bring up the fact that I am very magical?"

"Because I know that one day you'll become someone special," Her eyes glittered as the older woman was swept away in her own fantasies. "Rhode, you'll get away from being destitute and magic shows. You'll be one with a great purpose in life."

"Oh, really, now?" Rhode sighed, getting tired of every time that her older friend would whisk up some tale about her being greater than all the gypsies they worked with. Nibbling on her bottom tender lip, she knew there was nothing special about her, except the fact that she was acrobatic and had the knack for fooling the feeble-minded into believe in magic.

"Yes, really!" Harli laughed, shaking her head, coils bouncing off her shoulders at each turn of the head. She brought her fingers to Rhode's soft dark cheeks, poking hard into the supple flesh. "Why don't you ever believe in yourself? BELIEVE, GIRL, BELIEVE!"

"Ouch—Hey! Harli, cut it out!" She cried out, feeling sore by each pinch and poke that her friend conducted upon her poor cheeks. "We're outsiders to all these people anyhow! How am I supposed to be all high and mighty when I'm labeled a gypsy? It's not like I could get a better life! Look at our skin! Stop poking and look…." Her eyebrows furrowed deeply before she felt Harli's fingers retreat from her face.

"Why must you be such a downer? You're young! Think optimistically, you know? It's not time for you to get all sad and crippled by life! Live higher!" She brought her fingers up to the dark twinkling sky, wriggling them.

"You're way too happy for your own good, Harli," Rhode smirked with a laugh, knowing that her only friend in this circus of gypsies was very awkward indeed. Her finger crept to her red treasure, warmly caressing the hard surface. It was the fact that Rhode didn't like discussing the future at all. She'd let events carry her off each day and she'd not use her time to dwell upon the outcomes or possibilities. "Maybe we'll all be burned for being wretches."

"What?!" Harli frowned, "I don't want to be burnt! I'd look horrid all melted and whatnot…." She managed to turn such a dreary possibility into that of a joke. The older woman would not let her naïve friend force her on the path of depression. "I'd turn into some kind of monster! Now how am I supposed to earn my own coin with the men, if I look like a new house wife's kitchen disaster?"

"That's your fault, not mine," Rhode smiled, "I don't go rolling around in the grass with every man I see that has coin, Harli."

"I do not! I pick the good ones! They have to have coin AND be well in hygiene. Harli doesn't need unnecessary diseases down there!" Harli answered, trying to somehow stick up for herself, proving that she wasn't a whore. Harli Wood was a notorious woman to sleep with men for riches. It amazed Rhode that her friend had yet been stuck with a brat from all the rolling and tossing at night with each strange man.

"Well, it really isn't my business how you get your gold, now is it?" She laughed at her nymphomaniac friend.

"Hey! Hey! Let's stop talking about money! That's a sad topic, mhhhm?" Harli sweat dropped, flapping her hands nervously.

"Yeah, it is, isn't it….?" Rhode sighed, running her fingers gently across her spiky dark hair, feeling the small threads rub against her calloused fingers. From all the burning and fire she used for her "magic" acts, her fingers were immune to the heat and scarred up.

"I wonder when we'll get to Arc…." Harli pondered aloud, looking ahead to the front of the cart. There was nothing in view yet except for scattered grass patches, dirt, pebbles, and the tough meandering road that would soon enough bring them to that desired place.

"Arc? That's where we are headed next…? Isn't that place the capital of Noah?" Rhode frowned at the voicing of their next location.

"You bet!"

"….The castle resides there…."

"I would assume so, seeing as King Millennium reigns from the capital. Ooooh That king sired such handsome delicious men!" Harli swooned, rocking both of them back and forth happily.

"Why am I not surprised this conversation has resumed back to men, eh?" Rhode grinned in amusement. "So, the old dude has kids…? I don't know much about Noah…I mean, you did find me when I was five in the land of Order…."

"Yeah, that is true, huh? Brings back good memories…." Harli squealed, patting Rhode's head motherly.

"The kids….?" Rhode inquired, wanting to hear more about the Noah royal family.

"Oh, yes, right!" Harli giggled, smacking her head, "He's got himself five yummy men! What a busy man the King had to have been before his wife died!"

"His wife died?"

"Yup. She died during the childbirth to her last son."

"What are their names? The heirs?"

"Well, there's Skin, Jasdero, Debito, Sherill, and Tyki," Harli informed her with a smile. "They're all so yummy and lovely! Not one maiden can choose which man they'd want to roll with more!"

"How lucky for those horny princes…" Rhode observed, breathing in the cold night air. Her eyelids dropped, sheltering her golden eyes as she leaned against Harli. It was most lucky that she'd have to entertain those heirs with one of her little routines.

Skin.

Jasdero.

Debito.

Sherill.

Tyki.

She'd imprint those regal names upon her mind, scribbling them permanently for usage. Since it felt to Rhode that those five names would one day become costly and she'd be tangled within the names. What a mess this aching warning feeling enveloped her in. Not able to keep conscious any longer by the venomous admonition from within, Rhode let herself slumber for the time being.


End file.
